Royals, Greg Holland Avoid Arbitration

The Royals announced (on Twitter) that they have avoided arbitration with All-Star closer Greg Holland. Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star tweets that the Turner Gary Sports client settled on a $4.675MM contract that includes a $50K bonus for making his second All-Star team.

Holland's deal is $25K north of the $4.65MM midpoint between his $5.2MM asking figure and the club's $4.1MM offer. His 2014 salary comes in just shy of the $4.9MM payday projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.

Holland, who turned 28 in November, enjoyed a breakout season with the Royals in 2013 — his first full campaign as the team's closer. The North Carolina native turned in a stellar 1.21 ERA with 13.8 K/9, 2.4 and a 39.4 percent ground-ball rate en route to a club-record 47 saves and his first All-Star nod. His arbitration case was the final unsettled case for the Royals, meaning that GM Dayton Moore and his staff have successfully avoided a hearing in 2013 (as shown in MLBTR's Arbitration Tracker).